Thread: Honda Civic Aluminum Radiator Impressions

Ok i know there are a couple people on here that either have used or are in the process of using a honda civic single wide two core or three core radiator. So i would like to give my opinion on how its working for my car soo far being where i live we have some of the hottest summers in the country.

First off i know most of you have seen the setup of my car and i would say the main difference in my cooling system setup is the fact that im running an electric waterpump and no thermostat while others might run the stock water pump with a thermostat. So i dont really have impressions under those circumstances. But I will give my impressions using the Mezier electric water pump and no thermostat with the Honda Civic Single wide Two core radiator.

My impressions are that this setup runs really really cool even on the several 110 degree days we have had here in Yuma, AZ. At worst case scenario with alot of stop and go during the heat of the day my factory temp guage will just barely start to rise off the peg and reach just at the bottom line and sometime just a bit above with constant stop and go. I daily drive the car so i drive it almost every day, day and night. The greatest part of this setup is that fact that when i shut the car off i can leave the key on to keep the water pump flowing with the Flexalite 1200cfm fan running. Within 2-3 minutes the radiator hose will go from being hot to the touch to just warm. Its very nice for a big boosted motor to have and makes for a really good setup for drag strip use.

During wot again i dont even see much of a rise in temp, If i do back to back to back runs it might occasionally come up to the bottom line on the factory guage but once the runs are over and just cruising it goes right back to the bottom peg and sits there.

Here are some pics of the radiator setup. Im using an aluminum pipe double wrapped in fiberglass heat wrap for the upper hose. The lower hose is just cut in the middle to allow the Mezier water pump. I love the setup and so far its proven very reliable and i have yet to see any temp issues and the motor stays running nice and cool which is a big plus to keep away detonation and any harmful rises in coolant temp.







As you can see the upper crossover pipe sits right in between the head and turbo fairly close to the turbine housing. It so far has had no ill affects on the way the cooling system performs. Im also using an aftermarket 1.1 bar cap as well. I know its not the cleanest setup around but it was alot cheaper to do and its mainly my drag car, if i was looking to do a clean daily driver sleeper car i would have just used the more expensive parts and went with a turbo setup that would fit better and a koyo radiator like most. I for one wanted to be different and two your talking costs alone are down a good $1k for this setup compared to a tubular manifold that would work with a full size radiator and place the turbo in the correct spot.

The car runs great, its a great setup for drag racing, and its all around good street setup as well that has proven itself so far.

What are the weight savings for this mod? I bet you can find one of those radiators for like 30 bucks off ebay.

very little to none, again didnt do it for the weight, I had to remove the upper radiator core support and hood latch and support. That was about the only weight removed in order to do this. If anything i added weight being the water pump is a good 10 lbs. The radiator weighs about the same as a stock radiator. You might think of it this way, Our radiators are twice as wide but half as thin as this. So in essence it still supports the same cooling ability as our factory one if not more. I think this one is actually about 2.5 times thicker than a stock se-r radiator. 2x an nx stock radiator.

Again didnt do it for weight i did it because i didnt feel like shelling out 350-400 for a custom sized radiator that i could fit in there that is the same width but would sit up on the fram where the condensor would normally sit. I believe there was someone on here that had a custom one made like that. its a bit shorter but it was a 3 core, and it was just as wide as the stock one or fairly close. They did it to work with this type of setup as well. But again thats something that would have to be custom made.

can you measure the actual temps numbers? i assume with your wording on the top that your using the stock guage in dash? if you are measuring with the stock guage i can tell you that you are actualy runing to cool if it barly touches the bottom line. these cars should be run at 180 ish deg for good performance/wear. if you run them to cold your actualy increasing the wear on your engine alot. not to mention the ecu does some extra fuel adj and possibly timing adjustments when it sees a water temp lower that 160-170.

I used a automatic transmission radiator I noticed it worked pritty good as well and added alot of coolant capacity to my system. Its a little thicker too. This won't work for you after examining your pics though

Well i know for a fact the once the guage starts to rise its very little temp increase from the bottom line to just below half on the guage where it would normally sit. I do not even get on it until the car is warmed up as good as its gonna get. Its hard to say but im pretty sure the coolant temp still gets to the 160-170 mark but probably not much higher than that. In the evening the temp probably sits between 150-160, ill be putting in an autometer temp guage to replace the factory cluster guage one that way i can get a better picture of what the temps are looking like. Ill update the thread when i do so.

Your under the hood tempeture is 160-170 degrees? Last time I checked mine was like 220 dergrees during reagular driving conditions how do you keep it so cool? Also does that water wetter crap work? I ran it once and my water pump just happend to need replacing a month later. Never used it since.

that means it was already on its way out. Water Wetter is just fine and is not the cause of pump failure. I saw about a 10 degree drop in sversge temps with WW and 70/30 water coolant mix.

all im using right now is a 50/50 mix coolant/distilled water, no water wetter although i have used it and it works great. thats not the cause of your pump failure. Oh and my underhood temps are not hot at all. Notice the big open hole in my hood where there used to be an evo8 hood vent. Does wonders at keeping underhood temps down bigtime.

What happens when it's cold outside?